Famed forensic pathologist Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D., a longtime coroner and medical school professor, describes the physical impossibility of the Warren Commission's 1964 report that President John F. Kennedy's accused assassin fatally shot the president acting alone. Author of nearly 60 books for both medical professionals and the general public, his latest released this month is The JFK Assassination Dissected: An Analysis with co-author Dawna Kaufmann. (Photo above at the National Press Club by Noel St. John via SmugMug).
Dr. Wecht, chairman of the group Citizens Against Political Assassinations (CAPA), was speaking at a March 2017 national "Sunshine Week" conference organized by CAPA to show the vital civic need for the White House to comply with the President John F. Kennedy Records Collection Act of 1992, which required public release of all assassination records. President Trump later that year cited "national security" to postpone the release of many records, a delay replicated last month by President Biden just before the required release date this year of Oct. 26. An estimated 16,000 JFK assassination records remain classified in whole or part despite the provisions of the law, which had been unanimously passed by Congress in 1992 and signed into law by then President George H.W. Bush
The Biden Administration’s recent delay in releasing the final trove of classified documents pertaining to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy tees up three annual research conferences this month during the anniversary of JFK’s slaying in downtown Dallas.
The conferences and postponed document releases build on millions of pages of previously declassified documents and many hundreds of books through the decades fanning widespread public doubts about official accounts. Those official accounts, most notably the 1964 Warren Commission report, assigned guilt for the president’s death solely to ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald. Flaws in the report largely ignored by government, academic and mainstream media foster lingering fears that watchdog institutions fail to probe and prevent civic tragedies and cover-ups, including in current times.
Today’s column surveys this fall’s major developments. These include the records release delay, the three conferences and Oliver Stone's sequel, JFK Revisited, to his blockbuster film JFK three decades ago. The new documentary launched in the United States on Showtime on Nov. 22, the anniversary of JFK's death. Stone is shown at right with a poster from JFK.
This month also see the publication of a major new book: Coup in Dallas: The Decisive Investigation into Who Killed JFK (Skyhorse, 720 pages) by the late H. P. Albarelli Jr. with a foreward by best-selling JFK author Dick Russell.
Another major development is the publication of a "primer" on the assassination designed to provide a relatively brief and powerful assembly of relevant evidence undercutting the Warren Report and its defenders.
The report, The Assassination of John F. Kennedy-The Real Story, is by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, created in January 2020 by more than 60 researchers, which announced on Nov. 18 the release of its JFK report.
The committee (www.americantruthnow.org) urged everyone to share the links and encourage friends and associates to contact their Senators, Congressional representatives and President Biden to urge release the JFK records.
This editor has published a book in the field this year, worked closely with leaders in records release advocacy and also spoke at two of the three November conferences.
One was organized by Citizens Against Political Assassinations (CAPA), shown via Zoom with details here, on the weekend days of Nov. 20 and 21, with a free all-day session on Friday, Nov. 19 for students.
Another was the JFK Assassination Conference, which was seen both via Zoom and in person at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas, beginning Thursday Nov. 18.
A third conference, organized since 1996 by the JFK Lancer event and publishing company, was its November in Dallas annual event, this year via remote viewing from Nov. 19 through 21, with heavily discounted admission for students.
Our project always seeks to promote all three conferences with the view that there is much to discuss, with many valuable perspectives deserving an audience.
An appendix below contains more details on these events, as well as excerpts from a number of news stories and commentaries this fall regarding the records release process and its implications, plus analysis of several recent assassination witness revelations.
This column is also the 57th segment of the Justice Integrity Project's JFK Assassination Readers Guide, which lists major books, films, archives and interpretative articles, with an index and links in the appendix.
Shown also below is a report on the new issue of Garrison, a 398-page webzine published this month. This edition's focus is on original commentaries about the 1960s assassinations of John Kennedy (JFK), his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) and Malcolm X. This editor is among the authors.
JFK Records Chronology
A rare feature this fall regarding these inquiries was the deadline on Oct. 26 for federal authorities to release to the public all remaining documents pertaining to the JFK assassination.
On Oct. 22, the White House issued an executive order postponing the release until Dec. 15 for an unknown number of documents. The order set the same date next year, Dec. 15, 2022, to release remaining documents. The only exception under the terms of the 1992 JFK Records Act is for the Executive Branch to provide specific "national security" reasons for any documents withheld.
In ordering this latest postponement, the White House cited as an excuse the pandemic’s impact on federal staff, particularly at the National Archives and Records Administration.
The Justice Integrity Project has been working closely with active researchers, several of whom issued blunt criticisms of the delay and overall process. One of them, researcher Lawrence Schnapf, a New York City-based lawyer, promptly filed a federal Freedom of Information suit seeking prompt release of relevant documents and specific reasons (as required under the Records Act) regarding any documents that are withheld.
Researchers also criticized many in the major news media for their failure to cover the delay more prominently and for a longstanding pattern of fostering a false narrative that no remaining significant questions exist about the assassination and conventional accounts. The 1964 Warren report blamed the assassination solely on Oswald.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren chaired the commission, which included several other top government leaders all chosen by Kennedy's successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson. The seven commissioners and two top staff counsel are shown at left, including former CIA Director Allen Dulles, who is shown also at right.
The New York Times, Washington Post and nearly all other major newspapers and broadcast outlets consistently state that Oswald is "the assassin" of Kennedy without attributing the claim and without for the most part informing audiences of strong evidence disputing that claim that has been offered through the decades by well-credentialed experts.
Instead, the major news organizations and most widely quoted academics on the topic use the smear term "conspiracy theory" to demean those researchers who question commission's report and other highly irregular proceedings after the killing. The controversies continue to provoke worldwide interest in JFK's death.
Our appendix to this column contains a large amount of relevant material and provides a roadmap for further in-depth research.